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Bike advocates riled by lack of lanes in Bloor St. redesign

Plans to widen sidewalks, plant trees and eliminate street parking usually have Toronto cyclists ringing their bells in support.

By Tess KalinowskiTransportation Reporter

Wed., July 23, 2008

Plans to widen sidewalks, plant trees and eliminate street parking usually have Toronto cyclists ringing their bells in support.

But in the case of the makeover that will make Toronto's toniest shopping district more attractive and pedestrian-friendly, frustrated bike advocates say they've been left out of the equation.

The lack of bike lanes in the redesign of Bloor St. from Church St. to Avenue Rd. flies in the face of provincial planning policies that compel cities to consider the safety of cyclists and ways of reducing traffic congestion and pollution, says environmental lawyer Albert Koehl.

"It seems to us in 2008 that putting in a bike lane isn't something we (should be) begging for, it's something you put in as a matter of course. You'd put in a bike lane like you'd put in street lights," he said.

Koehl, along with Kristen Courtney, who belongs to the Bells on Bloor group, and Angela Bischoff of the Take the Tooker cycling group, plan to file a formal complaint today asking the province to investigate whether the city followed environmental assessment rules when planning the Bloor Street Transformation Project.

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The cyclists say the city filed the project under the wrong assessment category, failing to hold broad public consultations or consider design alternatives that would make more room for cyclists in the redesigned street.

"It is the premier shopping district in Canada but it's also the premier cycling route in Toronto in terms of numbers," Koehl said of Bloor. "It also has one of the highest cycling injury rates in the city."

About 14 per cent of Bloor traffic is bikes, and cyclists should have access to that public space even if there are bike lanes on streets to the north and south, they contend.

City studies show removing 54 on-street parking spaces will increase the number of cars travelling along the busy Mink Mile, according to Koehl.

The Bloor project has been in the planning stages since 2001. The city, which began construction earlier this month, is putting up $20 million to finance the improvements, which will then be repaid by the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area.

City officials say the project doesn't preclude bike lanes being installed along that stretch later.

"We've been asked to look at cycling facilities on Bloor-Danforth from Victoria Park to Royal York. That's what we want to do and that's why we didn't want to do anything on this stretch of Bloor St. in isolation," said John Mende, director of transportation infrastructure management.

Meantime, the curb lane has been widened from about 3.5 metres to about 4 metres, which will improve cycling conditions for now, he said.

Because the plan maintains the current four lanes of traffic, Mende said, he's confident the city is complying with the correct A+ environmental assessment category, which does not require public consultation. A conviction under the environmental assessment act carries a $10,000 fine for a first offence.

Koehl says cyclists are not comforted by the upcoming bike feasibility study along Bloor-Danforth, either. It will study the possibility of a bikeway rather than bike lanes – signs posted along the road rather than lines painted on it, he said.

"When they did the Spadina reconstruction they said we'd get bike lanes," said Koehl. "They painted a line 15 centimetres from the curb."

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